Harris - Walz, page-2603

Fox News Retracts DNC Staffer Conspiracy Story, But ...

NPR

https://www.npr.org › 2017/05/24 › fox-news-retracts-...

— Fox News retracted a story about the death of a Democratic National Committee staffer that was based on a groundless conspiracy theory.

• Tucker Carlson promoted the COVID-19 lab leak theory
• Sean Hannity argued on his March 9 program that Democrats and the news media were trying to use COVID-19 to "bludgeon Trump"
• Hannity argued that the seasonal flu was still making a larger "impact" than COVID-19 (with 34 million cases against roughly 1,200 at the time), only the elderly and immunocompromised were at the greatest risk, and argued that there was not an equivalent "widespread hysteria" over routine violent crimes in Chicago.
• Also on March 10, Laura Ingraham referred to "panic pushers" in the media, suggesting that "the facts are actually pretty reassuring, but you'd never know it watching all this stuff", and implicated that only those at high risk needed to practice social distancing (contrasting recommendations by officials that all people should practice social distancing).[11][167] Two days later, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt suggested that it was the "safest time to fly" since "[the] terminals are pretty much dead",[174] and the program aired an interview with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., where he claimed that the "overreaction" to COVID-19 was "their next attempt to get Trump" and that COVID-19 was a biological weapon developed by China or North Korea to attack the United States.
• Concurrent with Trump's own changes in tone and attitude surrounding the pandemic, some Fox News pundits began to openly acknowledge its severity on-air, including Hannity, Ingraham, and Earhardt.[12][167][176][177] Vanity Fair observed this shift in tone as an inversion of the "feedback loop" that had emerged between Trump and Fox News (resulting from Trump's discussion of stories seen on the network, particularly during Fox & Friends, on social media),[178] but noted that the network's personalities were more often "showering praise on the president rather than offering their own take on things", and that Ingraham had accused other media outlets of using the pandemic to celebrate "Trump's downfall".
• On March 24, after Trump began to endorse off-label use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 symptoms based on anecdotal evidence, Hannity and Ingraham similarly promoted the drug during their respective programs.[179] During a Coronavirus Task Force briefing on April 13, 2020, Trump screened a montage of footage taken directly from an episode of Hannity, of news anchors and guests downplaying the early threat of COVID-19, as part of a video presentation that glorified his initial response to the pandemic.
• Fox News pundits showed inconsistent views towards the wearing of face masks to lessen spread of infected droplets by the wearer. Hannity and Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy have supported the practice,[190][191] as did Carlson and Ingraham in late-March; on his March 30 episode, Carlson stated that "Of course masks work. Everyone knows that. Dozens of research papers have proved it", and cited that they were "key" to controlling the pandemic in East Asia, and criticized the government's early guidance against using them for protection of the wearer.[192][193] However, as masks became a partisan political issue over the months that followed, Carlson and Ingraham began to perpetuate opposition towards the practice, on a later episode, Carlson claimed that masking and social distancing had no basis in science.[193][194][192] On April 26, 2021, Carlson claimed that making children wear masks was child abuse, and that people who spot parents making their children wear masks should call police and child protective services.
• Despite having made some efforts to promote the vaccination program, via public service announcements, promotion of the federal Vaccines.gov website, and selected hosts making statements in support of vaccination,[196][197] Media Matters for America found that from June 28 to August 8, at least 60% of Fox News segments discussing COVID-19 vaccines "included claims undermining or downplaying [them]", such as political arguments, disputes and conspiracy theories regarding their safety, and arguments that they were a "cynical political ploy by Democrats". The amount of such content was shown to have intensified during the week of July 26, while Tucker Carlson, Brian Kilmeade, and frequent guest Marty Makary were identified as having discussed such content most often during the period.[198] Fox News implemented a vaccine passport system in July 2021 despite its hosts criticizing vaccine passports,[199][200] and more than 90% of Fox Corporation's full-time employees had been fully vaccinated by September 2021
• Other Fox News Media properties have also faced criticism and controversies over their coverage of the pandemic. In March 2020, Fox Business anchor Trish Regan left the network amid criticism of a March 7 segment on her program, where she accused Democrats of politicizing the pandemic so they could blame Donald Trump for it, and seek a second impeachment.[202][203] One month later, Fox Nation severed its ties with conservative vloggers Diamond and Silk after they repeatedly promoted various COVID-19 conspiracy theories.[204][205] On December 23, 2020, Fox Business program Mornings with Maria was duped by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, airing an interview with an activist posing as Smithfield Foods' CEO Dennis Organ to discuss its response to the pandemic. He suggested that "the conditions inside of our farms can sometimes be petri dishes for new diseases", and that the meat packing industry could "effectively [bring] on the next pandemic." The program's anchor Maria Bartiromo issued an apology at the end of the show, saying that they had been "punked"
• In July 2023, Ray Epps started legal proceedings against Fox News, following former host Tucker Carlson sharing incorrect allegations that Epps was an agent provocateur during the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
• In September 2023, New York City pension funds filed a lawsuit against Fox Corporation alleging negligence for knowingly opening itself up to defamation lawsuits. At the time, New York City pension funds held 857,000 shares of Fox stock worth $28.1 million.[235] The state of Oregon joined the lawsuit on behalf of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement fund which at the time held 225,000 shares worth $5.2 million
• Glenn Beck, the host of an eponymous afternoon commentary show, stated in 2009 that he believed President Obama is "a racist" and has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."[239] These remarks drew criticism, and resulted in a boycott promulgated by Color of Change.[240] The boycott resulted in eighty advertisers requesting their ads be removed from his programming to avoid associating their brands with content that could be considered offensive by potential customers. Beck later apologized for the remarks, stating on Fox News Sunday that he has a "big fat mouth" and miscast as racism what is actually, as he theorizes, Obama's belief in black theology.[240][241][242][243][244][245][246][247] Beck left Fox News in June 2011 after twenty-nine months with the network.[248][249]
• Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, was described as a "Bush apologist" by critics[250] after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush. Democratic strategists and politicians boycotted Cavuto's show in 2004 after he claimed, on air, that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was rooting for Bush's campaign opponent, Senator John Kerry.[251] Cavuto has also received criticism for gratuitous footage and photos of scantily clad supermodels and adult film stars on his program.[252][253]
• Alan Colmes, who from 1996 to 2009 was co-host of the political debate program Hannity & Colmes, was touted by Fox News as "a hard-hitting liberal"[254] who was used to counter the opinions of his co-host, conservative talk radio personality Sean Hannity. However, while speaking to USA Today, Colmes described himself as "quite moderate". He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick".[255] Liberal commentator and future Minnesota Senator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Throughout the book, Colmes' name is printed in smaller type than all other words to emphasize Franken's belief that Colmes' role was to feebly defend liberal positions, allowing him to be bulldozed by Hannity. Franken accuses Colmes of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.[255]
• John Gibson, the former host of an afternoon program called The Big Story, was cited as an example of Fox News blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion programming. Gibson caused a general uproar among listeners immediately after the 2000 presidential election controversy when, during the opinion segment of his show, Gibson asked: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn these ballots, preserve them in amber, or shred them?" and, "George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?"[256] In an opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American military."[257] In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal opinions expressed (in an opinion slot) must not rest upon false evidence." Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that Gibson appeared to attribute to him; Ofcom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase.[258] Gibson also called Joe Wilson a "liar", claimed that "the far left" is working for al-Qaeda[259] and stated that he wished that Paris had been host to the 2012 Olympic Games, because it would have subjected the city to the threat of terrorism instead of London.[260]
• Steven Milloy, a commentator for FoxNews.com, has been critical of the science behind global warming and secondhand smoke as a carcinogen. In a February 6, 2006, article in The New Republic, Paul D. Thacker revealed that ExxonMobil had donated $90,000 to two non-profit organizations run out of Milloy's house.[261] In addition, Milloy received almost $100,000 a year from Philip Morris USA during the time he was arguing that secondhand smoke was not carcinogenic.[262] Milloy's website, junkscience.com, was reviewed and revised by a public relations firm hired by RJR Tobacco.[263] In response to Thacker's disclosure of this conflict of interest, Paul Schur, director of media relations for Fox News, stated that "... Fox News was unaware of Milloy's connection with Philip Morris. Any affiliation he had should have been disclosed."[261]E.D. Hill introduced an upcoming discussion before a commercial break about a fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama after the 2008 Democratic primaries by stating that the gesture was either "A fist bump? A pound? [or] A terrorist fist jab?", but never explained the term when the segment continued after the break.[264] The incident was considered controversial among bloggers and political commentators.[265][266][267][268] Hill apologized for her comments the next day.[269]Dick Morris appeared several times on Fox News, including one appearance on Fox & Friends two days before the 2012 presidential election, predicting that Mitt Romney would win the election in a landslide.[270] Morris was the least accurate major pundit in predicting the 2012 election.[271] After the election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for almost three months. Finally on February 5, 2013, Fox News announced that it would not renew Morris' contract.[272]
• Karl Rove protested Fox News' calling of the 2012 election for Barack Obama on November 7, 2012. Megyn Kelly then brought a camera crew to ask the off-air analysts team if they stood by their decision. After Rove continued to refuse Fox News's decision, Kelly responded by asking him, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"[273][274][275]
• Megyn Kelly drew controversy after making remarks in December 2013 reacting to a Slate article that postulated that "Santa Claus should not be a white man anymore". On her Fox News program, The Kelly File, Kelly quipped that, "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also stated that Jesus was white later in the segment.[276] Soon after, Jon Stewart,[277] Stephen Colbert,[278] Rachel Maddow,[279] and others satirized her remarks. A few days later, Kelly made additional on-air statements and characterized her original comments as "tongue-in-cheek"
• The New York Times ran an article entitled, "At Fox News, the Colonel Who Wasn't" by Jim Rutenberg,[285] revealing that Joseph A. Cafasso, whom Fox had employed for four months as a Military and Counterterrorism Editor, had bogus military credentials.
• Outfoxed, a documentary film on Fox News by activist Robert Greenwald, made assertions of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the network's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, identified as a Fox News producer, says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry ... Republican, right-wing propaganda[,]" including being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. The network made an official response[287] and claimed that four of the individuals identified as employees of Fox News either were not employees (O'Donnell, e.g., worked for an affiliate over which Fox News claims to have no editorial authority) or had their titles inflated.
• Fox Attacks was a 2007–08 viral video campaign[289][290][291] designed to expose Fox News' alleged right-wing bias.[292][293][294][295][296] It was produced by Greenwald and Brave New Films after the production of Outfoxed. Greenwald continued his anti-Fox campaign with more than twenty-five short videos on YouTube concerning Fox News' negative treatment of Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle.[291][293][295][297] As part of the Fox Attacks campaign, Brave New Films also released "open letters" to other media outlets, and circulated anti-Fox petitions which garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures.
• CNN founder Ted Turner accused Fox News of being "dumbed down" and "propaganda" and equated the network's popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany during a speech to the National Association of Television Program Executives.[300] In response, a Fox News spokesperson said, "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind. We wish him well." The Anti-Defamation League, to whom Turner had apologized in the past for a similar comparison, said Turner is "a recidivist who hasn't learned from his past mistakes.
• Fox News apologized for fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry in an article on its website during the 2004 presidential campaign,[303] stating that the piece was a joke which accidentally appeared on the website.
• Pat Caddell[307] – called the Democratic Party a "confederacy of gangsters" and defended conservative writer Ann Coulter when she said she could not talk about former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards if a homophobic epithet she used was off-limits.
• Bill O'Reilly referred to some of the protesters as "terrorists" (though he added, "most protesters are peaceful").[310][311] Fox News online columnist Mike Straka referred to anti-war protesters at the September 24, 2005, march in Washington, D.C., as "jobless, anti-American, clueless, smelly, stupid traitors" and "protesters from hell"
• Iranian-Swedish newspaper commentator, author and legal professional Behrang Kianzad [314] wrote in the Expressen newspaper that "there are lies, damned lies and Fox News",[315] in response to a Fox News story about allegedly Muslim violence in the city of Malmö. The report focused on the borough of Rosengård where two out of 1,000 school students were ethnic Swedes.[316] Kianzad wrote that rock-throwing against police, firefighters and ambulance personnel happened not just in Rosengård and not as a Muslim custom. He also pointed out that the Fox News segment had false facts, namely that Malmö has about 7% immigrants from Muslim countries and not 25%. Furthermore, Kianzad pointed out the rhetoric used by Fox News to imply that Malmö had reached some sort of breaking point due to Muslim immigrants and that these immigrants were potential terrorists."
• In August 2006, two Jordanian-Arab freelancers who were working for Fox News as producers resigned from the network, citing its coverage that month of Israel's conflict with the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Their resignation letter read in part: "We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that ... Not only are you Fox News an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are warmongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism
• On January 19, 2007, a segment on Fox & Friends featured an anonymously sourced article in the conservative web magazine Insight that claimed that associates of Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton had discovered that Senator Barack Obama had attended a "Muslim seminary" as a child in Indonesia. The term "Muslim seminary" refers to a specifically religious form of madrassa (school). It was determined within days that Obama had instead, as he had said in his memoirs, attended first a Catholic and then a modern public elementary school. The latter was, as Obama had written, "predominantly Muslim" (as Indonesia is predominantly Muslim), and not a seminary of any kind.[318] On January 31, 2007, The Washington Post suggested that because of Fox News' reporting of the Insight article, Obama had "frozen out" the network's reporters and producers while giving interviews to every other major network. After the incident, John Moody, a vice president at Fox, wrote to staff: "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this
• On September 5, 2011, Fox News criticized a speech by James P. Hoffa in Detroit calling for an "army of voters" to "take the SOBs out" and "give America back to Americans". However, Fox News edited out the mention of voters to make the speech sound like a call for violence.
• On January 11, 2015, Fox News commentator Steven Emerson, who had been criticized for inaccuracies in the past,[328][329][330][331] reported that Birmingham, a city of over 1 million people in the United Kingdom, is a Muslim-only city: "In Britain, it's not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in".[332] UK Prime Minister David Cameron commented, "When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools' Day. This guy's clearly a complete idiot."[333] Emerson, said to be an expert of Islamic terrorism, later apologized for what he called a "terrible", "inexcusable", "reckless" and "irresponsible" error,[334] and made a donation of £500 to the Birmingham Children's Hospital.
• On November 2, 2022, Fox News commentator Jesse Watters mocked a Starbucks employee—who is a part of Starbucks Workers United—lamenting oppressive working conditions while calling for unionization, stating that "hard work" got him to his position. The video clip was edited, however, so that the employee appeared to just be complaining about an eight hour work day